First off, I'm not a "wildflower guy" but I'd have to say that it's probably at its peak right now. This was taken on Tuesday, and the Columbine were in full bloom all over the basin. The Indian Paintbrush were mostly wide open, and those small yellow groundflowers were everywhere. Some of the blue-bells were open, but it seemed like we were just a little early for those. With the dry winter and spring they had in the Rockies it was surprising there were as many flowers as we saw.
I'd head up ASAP, certainly don't wait two weeks. The drive in from Lake City was easy, even a Hyundai Elantra made it to the turn-off..... darn glad it wasn't mine though.
We were staying at the family cabin over in Creede, so this was just a day jaunt in a Jeep. Did no hiking up there, just drove in and spent an hour or two there with the family. Took some pictures, lounged around, ate some cheese and crackers, headed home. Lots of marmots this year, more than I can remember and was even able to get pretty close to them (7-8'). Weather was beautiful as you can see from the photo, had no rain at all the last 2 weeks. Did not experience much smoke from the "416 fire" north of Durango either, though I've heard second-hand that it's flared back up a bit.
